A Bitter Feast by Deborah Crombie

When I first started reading Deborah Crombie’s mysteries, I didn’t realize that she was an American—and a Texan to boot, because she captures the English setting of her novels so well.  This is the 18th entry in the series featuring Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James.

Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his wife Gemma James (also with the London police) are looking forward to a weekend away as house guests of the parents of Gemma’s detective sergeant Melody Talbot.  The small Cotswold village where they are heading will be a respite for them and for their three children, and the weekend includes an exclusive fundraising lunch in the garden of the Talbots’ country home catered by a top chef in the area. 

Melody’s privileged background is a little-known secret in the police force, since her father owns a newspaper whose investigative reports sometimes view police matters unfavorably, and only Duncan and Gemma and another police officer, Doug Cullen, are included.  Due to schedules and car sizes, the group travels separately with Duncan driving down to Lower Slaughter himself on Friday evening after work.  Almost to his destination at Beck House, he is broadsided by a car that runs a stop sign at a T in the road.  Barely able to extricate himself from his vehicle, he makes it over to the other driver, only to hear her breathe her last words and die. 

Even though Duncan is badly banged up and Gemma is concerned about his health, their weekend becomes a busman’s holiday when the deaths in the car are discovered to be unusual and when a third death from a hit-and-run the following night seems to be related to the accident. 

In between detecting, the children enjoy the delights of a country home, the walks, the dogs, and games of croquet, while the adults and teenage Kit pitch in and help chef Viv Holland carry off the charity lunch when her help (the driver of the car, the hit-and-run victim) are no longer there for her.

The details of the kitchen scenes are expertly rendered and, added to the past narrative about Viv’s early years in the restaurant business in London, this makes one more compelling aspect of the book.  Both the development of new recipes and cuisines and the choreography of the preparation of a meal is fascinating.

Getting through the lunch is only one of the problems to solve, as it is soon discovered that the Talbots’ gardener has been skimming household funds, and then young Grace Holland disappears.

A wide cast of characters are made up of pub staff and customers, Beck House staff, Viv Holland’s daughter and the long-ago London chef from her past.  Among the fine things about Crombie’s books are the fully developed characters—both the continuing ones and the ones introduced as part of the current mystery.  The settings of her mysteries are also essential to the books, and they are completely varied and often unusual, which is one reason why such a long series is successful.  The children are well drawn and are delightful additions to the family that Duncan and Gemma have created. 

If you haven’t read any of the series, I would highly recommend starting at the beginning, while realizing that the series continuously strengthens and matures.  The relationships of Duncan and Gemma grow and evolve through these books, and they and their family become old friends.  This is especially recommended for fans of Julia Spencer-Fleming based on character development and relationships, use of setting, plot, and police procedure.

(Published on Tuesday, October 8)